Atari XP Physical Releases - Atari Releasing New Atari 2600 Game Cartridges!

[Sabertooth]

Here's an update from the Atari Games Discord server on the long delayed Mt. Run & Jump XP carts offered last summer. They are apparently shipping in April.

 

Edited April 7 by Sabertooth

[Neon Wraith]

About friggin' time!  I've been waiting since August for this.  I'm glad they changed manufacturers, there have been so many issues with the whole XP experience.  From what I understand, the previous manufacturer was Mega Cat Studios out of Pittsburgh.  Does anyone know if this is factual?

[Sabertooth]

9 hours ago, Neon Wraith said:

About friggin' time!  I've been waiting since August for this.  I'm glad they changed manufacturers, there have been so many issues with the whole XP experience.  From what I understand, the previous manufacturer was Mega Cat Studios out of Pittsburgh.  Does anyone know if this is factual?

They appear to be treating it like a private label, so there have been no formal announcements. However, if you Google the return address for "Atari XP", you'll see that it's Mega Cat's address: 3559 Bigelow Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Edited February 25 by Sabertooth

[Neon Wraith]

Nothing against Mega Cat but it seems they bit off more than they could chew.  I don't know how big they are or how many employees they have but they just seem to take forever.

[Sabertooth]

Anyone waiting for the XP orders of Run & Jump, here's the latest from Atari. Keep in mind these were offered for pre-order in July '23 with a 4 month lead time. So more than six months late at this point. Sorry Atari, not good enough.

 

[RickR]

It really sucks.  This is the type of thing that will keep customers away. 

[DegasElite]

That's a good point. It will keep customers away if they keep delaying it. That isn't good business.

[Justin]

If people ever wonder why we disallow solicitations for paid pre-orders to be posted in the forums, this is another unfortunate example. Even Atari is having trouble fulfilling.

[DegasElite]

Yes. Agreed. Even the VCS was a preorder at first because it was crowdfunded to start with. One reason why I didn't purchase it then.

[Sabertooth]

Here's an article from Time Extension about the 10 cart set. I can confirm the issue for Crystal Castles.

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/05/atari-fans-spent-usd1000-on-50th-xp-collection-only-to-find-two-of-its-games-are-broken

 

[TrekMD]

Hmm, I'd have to assume the issue is with any version of those carts, not just the ones that were sold individually.  I have one (Crystal Castles) but I've never opened it.

[Sabertooth]

Yeah, I got my set individually.  I know @Mockduck also reported issues with Crystal Castles.  It works on a few of my machines, but has issues on my 2600+ and a 7800.  In the 2600+, the levels skip.  In the 7800, dots/gems populate outside of the castle at random so you can't complete the stage.  It's inconsistent in terms of where it happens.  I have not had an issue on my 4-switch.

[Sabertooth]

Here's the first of the YT responses. It's a little inaccurate in that carts were offered individually first. So the impact is beyond the 100 that ordered a complete set.

 

[Scott Stilphen]

So Crystal Castles is glitched, and Haunted House has the pcb installed upside down.  Atari purchased Atariage last September - 8 months ago - and Rosen can't have Yarusso make replacement carts?  Or better yet, make the Mr. Run and Jump SE carts that are now what, nearly a year late?  Why are they using Mega Cat Studios (who??) to make VCS carts for them?  If they're the same company behind the original 3 XP VCS titles, then they didn't learn anything from the issues with those, and certainly aren't testing their products before shipping them.  MCS is also behind the 'new' VCS Food Fight: Culinary Combat title which apparently has its own issues:

 

[Sabertooth]

The LE versions XP carts use a custom board with a light-up "marquee." It's unlikely that Haunted house was installed backwards, and more likely that it's just a bad board. Otherwise that light up marquee wouldn't light up or be oriented correctly. Regardless, they should replace the cart.

I have the issues reported with Crystal Castles and can attest that customer service has been non-responsive. I speculate that Mega Cat didn't make extras based on an issue I had with a box with rounded/creased edges. In the instance, they couldn't replace the box but did refund me 50 percent. As a collector, I'd rather have the pristine box.

The Crystal Castles cart does work on certain hardware revisions. My feeling is that they didn't have a sufficient number of consoles to test compatibility with their custom PCB.

Atari likely selected Mega Cat because they already work in the collector/re-issue space for NES, SNES and Genesis.

 

Edited May 14 by Sabertooth

[Sabertooth]

Atari responds:

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/05/atari-responds-to-reports-of-faulty-games-in-usd1000-50th-xp-collection

 

[MistaMaddog]

So...the same issue with Atari XP that existed a couple years ago pops up again because a blogger decides to unseal the boxes to play the games and now decides to play a cartridge that turned out to be already defected.

You're right, Atari should have already taken care of the issue or at least find a different company to build the carts.  And IMHO the whole Atari XP endevour was a huge mistake!

But when people keep buying expensive carts knowing that they may not work and not be delivered on time...then that encourages Atari XP (and Mad Cat Studios) to keep making more overpriced & shoddy carts.

Now everyone knows why I don't buy physical media games from Atari, at least I can get Steam games instantly and get refunds if they aren't playable.

Remember people, Buyer Beware!

 

 

 

[Scott Stilphen]

On 5/14/2024 at 11:01 AM, Sabertooth said:

The LE versions XP carts use a custom board with a light-up "marquee." It's unlikely that Haunted house was installed backwards, and more likely that it's just a bad board. Otherwise that light up marquee wouldn't light up or be oriented correctly. Regardless, they should replace the cart.

The Crystal Castles cart does work on certain hardware revisions. My feeling is that they didn't have a sufficient number of consoles to test compatibility with their custom PCB.

According to someone from Atari ("TrogdarRobusto") confirmed the same thing regarding the Haunted House pcbs; no Limited Edition cart pcbs can't be installed backwards b/c of the lighted plexiglass piece on the end of the cart.  He also said the issue with Crystal Castles is still being worked on, and also sent a Gravitar XP cart to Yarusso to dissect (? Didn't know there was an issue with those as well).  Someone else in this same thread mentioned they had a non-working Crystal Castles XP cart and was sent a replacement, and the replacement cart is buggy, with some levels having crystals outside of the maze area (and thus rendering you stuck on that level) or sometimes you collect all the crystals and still can't progress to the next castle.  There's also considerable RF noise on the screen.

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/366299-atari-fans-spent-1000-on-50th-xp-collection-only-to-find-two-of-its-games-are-broken/

 

 

[CrossBow]

New thread on AA forums where apparently the new Food Fight cart isn't working in the 2600+. Seems it has been found that the version of the game these folks received is the PAL version and it doesn't work in the default FW on the 2600+. But it does seem to work on the latest beta experimental that allows for Pitfall II to work.

Why would the PAL version even be offered or sent? Was there an option when ordering these newer 7800 releases for which version you wanted NTSC/PAL? I mean, I guess if you plan to play the games on OG hardware it does matter but I didn't try ordering them so I wasn't sure if that was offered?

Eitherway, it seems that will have to press Plaion to get the experimental FW redone in a more friendly and multi OS manner for a more general release as others are sure to complain about Food Fight not working in their 2600+ consoles as well.

 

[Sabertooth]

1 hour ago, CrossBow said:

New thread on AA forums where apparently the new Food Fight cart isn't working in the 2600+. Seems it has been found that the version of the game these folks received is the PAL version and it doesn't work in the default FW on the 2600+. But it does seem to work on the latest beta experimental that allows for Pitfall II to work.

Why would the PAL version even be offered or sent? Was there an option when ordering these newer 7800 releases for which version you wanted NTSC/PAL? I mean, I guess if you plan to play the games on OG hardware it does matter but I didn't try ordering them so I wasn't sure if that was offered?

Eitherway, it seems that will have to press Plaion to get the experimental FW redone in a more friendly and multi OS manner for a more general release as others are sure to complain about Food Fight not working in their 2600+ consoles as well.

 

That's a real F*** Up if all are PAL. People who want to play these on OG hardware in NTSC territories are gonna be mad. There wasn't an option to select format here in the States. The report on AA comes from New Zealand

[CrossBow]

4 minutes ago, Sabertooth said:

That's a real F*** Up if all are PAL. People who want to play these on OG hardware in NTSC territories are gonna be mad. There wasn't an option to select format here in the States. The report on AA comes from New Zealand

Yes, so again I don't know if the region it was ordered from affect which version it is. But they already knew the PAL version of the game didn't work in the 2600+ at least not on default FW so it doesn't make sense why they would have mistakenly used the PAL version in their cart releases? 

I didn't order the game, but if I had, it would be very easy for me know if it was PAL or not since it wouldn't work on a stock NTSC console since the PAL would be missing the encryption code needed for the NTSC system to boot the game.

 

[TrekMD]

Looks like Atari is having some quality control issues.  This stuff should not be happening.

[CrossBow]

10 hours ago, TrekMD said:

Looks like Atari is having some quality control issues.  This stuff should not be happening.

I don't know if this is still true, but I found out that the Atari XP releases were in fact being done and handled by MegaCat Studios. I only know of them as I own several Genesis home brews they published. So I was a bit surprised when I heard they were behind the XP releases. Point is, MegaCat hadn't done anything Atari related prior to this that I'm aware of so it wouldn't have been my first thought on who to go to when getting these done. 

Anyway Ben from Plaion has stated he is going to try and get some of the remaining stock turned back in and recoded with a different version that will work on the 2600+. Don't know if anything has been discussed for those that already have the game in hand though.

 

[Sabertooth]

Yeah, Mega Cat did the XP line... at least through the Atari 50 10 cart set. Atari has indicated the rest of the line was shifted to a new manufacturer. Probably Plaion.

[CrossBow]

13 minutes ago, Sabertooth said:

Yeah, Mega Cat did the XP line... at least through the Atari 50 10 cart set. Atari has indicated the rest of the line was shifted to a new manufacturer. Probably Plaion.

That would make sense since Ben in the AA forums from Plaion did state he was going to have the remaining stuff sent back to Plaion so yeah...makes sense.